In the meantime, I will continue updating the blog that I maintain for a monastery in Greece

http://ypseni.wordpress.com (basically reflecting their Greek content http://ipseni.blogspot.com in English) – so you can get a few vitamins there.

All further updates and programs will be on the study circle weblog http://enteringmystery.wordpress.com. Where you can find powerpoint, video, articles and resources from previous sessions.

Have a good summer!

Some thoughts on Inner Stillness, Forgiveness and the ills of resentment.

Background Links:

Called to be Saints

Resentment and Forgiveness

Keep Inner Stillness

Outline

• What is a saint?
• When I grow up I want to be … a saint!
• From zero to hero…
• If Jesus is our Mediator, why do we pray to saints?
• What about the Panagia, the Mother of God?
• How and why do we ‘big up’ the saints?
• ‘Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones’
• How do we get the saints’ official rubber stamp of approval?

Links:

What is a saint? Fr. Ian Graham (Orthodox Fellowship of St. John the Baptist)

What we believe about the saints? Fr. Anthony Coniaris

Complete list of Saints

1. Who was Emperor Constantine and why is he important?
2. Roman Empire? Greek Speaking? Orthodox?
3. Is Pentecost the Birthday of the Church?
   • (Christ in the Old Testament and the Ecumenical Councils)
   • Purification, Illumination, Glorification (Theosis) [pdf]
4. Sickness and Therapy of the Soul
5. Pentecost and the Body of Christ
6. Speaking in Tongues: Prophesy and Theology
7. Conclusion

Read some more:

Straight History

Rome and Romania

Decadence, Rome and Romania, the Emperors Who Weren’t, and Other Reflections on Roman History

Further Reflections on Roman History

What, if anything, is a Byzantine?

Theology

Jesus Christ – The Life of the World

Romanity

Orthodox Spirituality

An appeal for an Orthodox Christian Europe

Theosis in Saint Silouan and Elder Sophrony

Other

Robin Hood – Orthodox Martyr

Saint Constantine

Ascension and Pentecost:

The Birthday of the Church

Outline

The Ascension

• The Reign of the Messiah
• A mission
• Power from on High

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

• The word ruah

The Holy Spirit in the Gospels

• The Annunciation
• The Baptism
• The Samaritan woman
• The Feast of The Tabernacles: Sukkot

Psalm 23 [24]:7-10

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory.

The Anti-Pentecost

Pentecost

Troparion of Pentecost

“Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit – through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, glory to Thee!”

Kontakion of Pentecost

“When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, he divided the nations. But when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-Holy Spirit!

Next week: What is the Church?

The Ascension in the New Testament

Luke 24:50-52 (New King James Version)

The Ascension

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

Acts 1:1-11

Prologue

¹ The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, ² until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, ³ to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit Promised

⁴ And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Men in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus Ascends to Heaven

⁹ Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, ¹¹ who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Mark 16:19

Christ Ascends to God’s Right Hand

¹⁹ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

Links

• Ascension
• Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit
• Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Fr. Alexander Tefft comes to St. Raphael’s to speak on “Blessed are the Persecuted…”

On the back of a century with the highest number of Christian martyrs since the beginnings of the Church the dynamic, and always interesting speaker Father Alexander Tefft, comes to St. Raphael’s to explain the Beatitude: “Blessed are the persecuted…”

Everybody welcome.

The last time he came everybody complained … “Why didn’t we record that?” We won’t be recording … you’ll have to come along live.

Date: Friday 27^th November

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: St. Raphael’s Orthodox Church, within St. George’s,

708 Hertford Road,

Enfield

EN3 6NR (map )

Nearest train: Turkey Street (Liverpool St. Line – change at Seven Sisters from tube). Bus: 279 stops outside.

Use http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/ for full options

Tea/Coffee and refreshments provided.

Father Alexander is Chaplain for the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies , Cambridge University and serves at St. Botolph’s Church, in London

Join us on Facebook and invite your friends:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171573918497

We raised £135 for Kenya with a very poor turnout, by the way!

Blessed are they that mourn

The theme was “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”. The session was a very interactive one, so there is no written talk online. I’m afraid you won’t get the full flavour of the session, this time.  which was built around communication and discussion.

There is an adapted video of the edited Powerpoint, and the whole Powerpoint as .pdf (portable document file)  document, which might hint at what was said.

Leave a comment if there are any difficulties – or if you like it!

Download Poverty in Spirit Document

There was some homework this week too!

• What can you do this week to have Poverty of Spirit? To put others first?
• How can you start to see yourself as you truly are?

The Elder Paisios video we watched (along with the other  parts that we didn’t watch) is here

I refer you to this post by Fr. Gregory Hallam

Orthodoxy and Creationism

Part of the problem is an attack by atheists on the Watchmaker view of God and Creation. Although based on an old philosophical viewpoint, this has not been the way Orthodox Christians traditionally view God’s relationship with the Universe  (although the attached flash file is quite sweet).

God did not set the ball rolling and disappear; He actively sustains the Universe. This is explained by Fr. Stephen Freeman in his blog post here.

There was also a discussion afterwards about relics due to the fact that the relics of Therese of Lisieux have been brought to the UK.

I wrote about this on my test blog last week:

What’s the point of relics?